Posts tagged Brian O’Leary

Source: Press Release
First guidebook for book publishers outlining how metadata for books operates in the real world
DataCurate announces the publication of The Metadata Handbook, a one-stop guide for book publishers — large, small, and independent — offering help in understanding how metadata works and outlining the essential components of successful metadata creation and distribution.
Topics covered include:
> How metadata for books operates in the real world
> Metadata fundamentals and the history of metadata for books
> Standards and best practices for creating and distributing accurate and comprehensive metadata
> The basics of ONIX for Books, including ONIX 3.0
> The basics of EPUB 3...

A recent post themed to work by Richard Adin, who writes at An American Editor, prompted an exchange about the future of great literature.
Adin continues to develop his arguments on the potentially negative impact of e-books on great literature. This post isn’t responding to the newer work; it’s a follow-up to Adin’s concern (expressed in a comment):
“Can you name a single work of fiction that was published in 2009 that has a broad consensus that it will be read 100 years from now? I can’t think of one. Yet we had no problem coming to that agreement with Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye...

Podcasting has turned radio into a new medium. From the New York Times Magazine:
...the value of a media product does not come from being fast. It comes from being timeless. ...It wouldn't make sense, [Abumrad] said, to devote the effort to seduce, disturb and engage the listener if "Radiolab" epidsodes were merely broadcast once and disappeared.
Exactly, I thought, Radiolab is like a book.
Back in October, Brian O'Leary posted a rather long essay on his blog, called "Context First". The essay was well received, and he presented versions of the essay at conferences around the world. I excerpt:
my...

Here is O'Leary's talk. It is also covered in my Tools of Change notes. While the talk is a bit "jargonish" (I'm still not quite sure what "context" is) at least to those, like me, who are not in the industry, and the slides are certainly confusing, his overall points are extremely well taken. It's worth your time to listen to it.
Context first: A unified field theory of publishing from Brian O'Leary on Vimeo....

For some time there has been a funny dichotomy in the publishing industry worldwide.
On the one hand publishers have decried the growing influence of powerful tech companies from outside the industry. Google, Amazon, Apple all fall into that category (Amazon aside from being an impressive online retailer is also an amazing tech company). They are feared and despised both as huge outside firms with enormous capabilities and cash compared with publishers and also as companies driving the industry in a direction it wasn’t keen on going.
On the other hand, various parts of the industry...

Late last year, the Economist released an iOS app that one review described as ”barebones and featureless, but that’s okay”. After working with the app for a few weeks, I came to the same conclusion.
In creating an app, the Economist went in a somewhat different direction. The app is free; anyone can download it to an iOS device. Once you load the app, you have an option to download and read a selection of content (generally, the magazine’s leaders, or opinion pages).
If you want the full magazine, you have two options: buy a digital-only subscription ($110),...

Jecopnn Webb of O'Reilly Radar has an interview today with Brian O'Leary. O'Leary is about the only person I know who has done any credible research into piracy and ebooks. Here's a one of the questions:
Is piracy really a threat to the book industry?BO: I don't have enough data to say unequivocally "yes" or "no" to the extent of the piracy threat. I think what leads to rampant piracy is not meeting emergent demands. The publishing industry should be working as hard as we can to develop new and innovative business models that meet the needs of readers....

Now is the winter of my desk content, and I have been trying to catch up on some overdue reading.
In November 2010, Forrester published the results of an e-book survey, “eBook Buying is About to Spiral Upward”. The full report is available for $499, and author James McQuivey offers a helpful summary that can be downloaded for free.
The survey first tried to establish how readers get books today. Asked “In which of the following ways have you acquired a book in the past six months?”, those responding most often said “A friend gave/loaned me a book” (50%).
The next...

A couple of years ago, I presented a print-on-demand workshop at what turned out to be the last iteration of BookExpo Canada. At the end of the trip, severe thunderstorms stranded me in Toronto.
After weighing my options, perhaps poorly, I decided to drive home rather than wait at the airport for another 24 hours (or more). Most of the drive would take place at night, but I wasn’t tired and traffic was light.
By 12:30 a.m., I had made it around the lake and was just outside Rochester, NY on the New York Thruway (their spelling, not...

From this morning's issue of Shelf Awareness:
In response to our link on Friday to an NPR story on the ability of companies to track the behavior and habits of people using e-readers, Lucy Kogler of Talking Leaves, Buffalo, N.Y., and president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, wrote:
I was outraged by publisher consultant Brian O'Leary's statement that "if people are buying books but not reading them or they're quitting them after a short period of time, that ultimately tells you that the customer is dissatisfied...and that better understanding when people stop reading, engaging with your content would help you...

On Monday, the New York Times profiled “a new crop of chiefs” leading the magazine groups at Hearst (David Carey), Meredith (Tom Harty), Time Inc. (Jack Griffin) and Conde Nast (Robert Sauerberg).
Although the Times characterized the changes as a generational shift, a bit of “out with the old, in with the new” to help publishers better manage in a digital era, I’m not convinced.
First, these guys – all middle-aged white men – reflect experience in the old order, not necessarily an embrace of a new one. They aren’t part of a “born-digital” generation; they are on the other side of that divide.
As well, they...

I think this deserves to be reprinted in full. It's from the Magellan Media blog:
Dear Mr. Turow,
Congratulations and best wishes on your election as president of the Authors Guild. This is an interesting and in some ways challenging time for publishing, and the AG is positioned to serve as a well-reasoned and informed voice for authors.
As it happens, the need for reason and data at a time of uncertainty prompts me to write. Among other pursuits, I study digital book piracy: its instance (how often and where does it occur?), as well as its impact (what’s the effect on paid sales?).
As a...